Kirkwood Trading Company screen printing of St. Louis

Custom printed rally towels in St. Louis with Kirkwood Trading Company. Your source for all things logo wear. Rally towels are a great inexpensive marketing tool that people love and it garners fan participation. The great thing about rally towels is the price point is very low. Let’s face it, you don’t order 12 rally towels. You order hundreds if not thousands, at a time. The best part if you are reading this as part of a sports team or event, often times you can get these rally towels free.

How? sponsorships. Look at any major sporting event from any major sports team who gives away custom rally towels at their events. In addition to the team name and logo and slogan, you’ll notice something else on every towel. Yes, you guessed, a sponsor generally in the name of a company.

It’s marketing exclusivity. Sponsors love this type of investment because their name is in front of every fan and it’s a captive audience. The best part is often times they are the sole sponsor which means no competition. While the towels will have the Savannah Squirrels logo and catch phrase, somewhere on that towel will be something like Everywhere Bank USA. They’d be the ones floating the bill for YOUR towels and in return they get exclusive advertising. Custom printed rally towels are a win win situation for everyone.

Rally towels are the yin to the yang. They bring the level of spirit up ten fold. They serve a purpose which is why you see every major sports team have towels for every major playoff event. They are a moral booster.

custom printed rally towels come in a variety of colors. There is generall a standard size for a custom printed rally towel but generally you have an option for a finished edge or a frayed edge. When it comes to towel color and print color prices will vary because different printing methods will be used when printing certain towel and ink combinations. The most common rally towels color is white as it’s the least expensive and neutral so any team color can be printed.

To learn more about the cost of rally towels contact us at your convenience here.

To design your own you can visit our online company Talkingink

screen printing company in St. Louis Kirkwood Trading Company

Local St. Louis custom t-shirt printing

We get a lot of customers who have ordered their shirts through an online company and while there have been many successful orders, the bad ones have been truly a bad experience. The shirts weren’t ready on time, the shirts didn’t fit, the printing was sub standard, the list goes on and on and when people try to contact someone they end up talking to someone 5 states away who offers little help.

In any given month we receive at least two phone calls from people who ordered their custom t-shirts online only to find out a day or two before they need their shirts that they won’t be ready. So with little options they call us for a quick turn around.

What’s nice about using a local St. Louis custom t-shirt printing company is you avoid both shipping costs and shipping times. Don’t be fooled by companies that offer free shipping because you can’t ship something for free and the shirt company certainly isn’t paying for the shipping, it’s simply built into the cost of the t-shirts. So you are waiting longer for your t-shirts and paying much more than you would be ordering them from a local St. Louis custom t-shirt printing company.

Ordering through a local St. Louis custom t-shirt printing company also allows you the benefit of seeing and feeling the shirts if you want so you know what you are buying. Quality isn’t an issue as you know exactly what the shirt looks, feels, and wears like. Plus you stimulate the local economy. Often times you pay less aside from saving on shipping simply because the pricing locally is less than it is in bigger states.

While Kirkwood Trading Company does most of our work via online and email, which allows both us and the customer to track orders as far as sizing, direction, and specific specs for a job, we are always a phone call away and many times customers like to come in and meet with us when placing an order. Though it’s not neccessary so there is the convenience of working online for customers who like to work that way. We always send digital proofs to our customers to they can see exactly how their shirts will look when they receieve them.

There is so much more of an advantage when working with a local St. Louis custom t-shirt printing company. You can talk to live local people, visit the shop to see samples, discuss in person your particular needs be it t-shirts, jerseys, spirit wear or corporate wear. And you save on time and shipping costs associated with ordering online from out of state companies. You get a better price and dealing with a smaller volume than a t-shirt giant we can manipulate our print schedules to meet every customers deadline without charging more and guaranteeing you’ll be happy with your custom t-shirt order.

If you are in the market for custom t-shirts Kirkwood Trading Company will be happy to discuss your needs and provide you with a free price quote and discuss time frame, cost, and all the neccessary steps to ensure a good custom t-shirt buying experience.

Family Vacation disney tshirts printed

Your dates set, your fast passes are scheduled, your ready to go experience Disney World with a great family vacation. What better way to celebrate than with custom disney vacation t-shirts? T-shirts unify the family and make great keepsakes. Not to mention keeping track of those family members who tend to stray from time to time. Disney vacation t-shirts have become a staple of any visit to a disney park. I was just there two weeks ago and there were more families with custom Disney vacation t-shirts than families without. It brings the whole experience together.

If you have never ordered custom t-shirts before don’t worry. We have you covered. We’ll discuss shirt color and design options and we try to keep it pretty simple. Feel free to bring us a design you like or we can work with you to come up with a completely custom design for you. Either way works for us and it’s a fun little gift you can present the family. In fact many families use the custom disney vacation t-shirts to surprise and break the news to the family. Nothing says we are going to Disney World like familiy disney shirts.

You can even go on our website and design your own disney shirts or as we mentioned above, give us your ideas and we’ll put the design together for you. Whether you need 3 shirts for a small family or 300 shirts for a cheerleader competition, we can do it all. The best part if we keep is easy, cost effective, and can meet any deadline. Kirkwood Trading Company ships custom t-shirts all over the United States so you can expect to get your shirts in just a few days without breadking the bank.

You set your date, you have your schedule, all that is left is contacting us for your custom disney vacation t-shirts. We’ll keep it simple, easy and cheap. Contact us today for a free price quote.

Kirkwood Trading Company Custom T-shirt screen printing

T-shirt printing for non-profit organizations

Kirkwood Trading Company has been screen printing custom t-shirts in St. Louis for over 20 years now. In that time we have met a lot of great people and printed t-shirts for a lot of great causes. Everybody has a story when they order their custom tees and some are funny, scary, sad, and uplifting. With our history of printing t-shirts we have always looked for ways to give back. A few years back we created a donation budget which is maxed out for the foreseeable future because we have worked with people who have custom t-shirts made for great causes. However we didn’t want to stop so we have created discounts when we do t-shirt printing for non-profit organizations and have even figured out a way to not only discount the shirts but always give back as well.

If you are the head of a local chapter for any non-profit organization who hosts events where your participants order custom t-shirts, you need to contact us because what we do for an organization wide donation will blow anything you’ve ever done out of the water. We can make a huge impact on run and walk events.

On a smaller scale when t-shirt printing for non-profit organizations we offer discounts for things like run and walk events. We understand your purpose is to raise awareness and funds for research. We try to help any way we can and offering discounts on shirts you want to purchase is the best way we know how.

A few things we do aside from discounting the shirts is volunteering any design work if needed. Typically there is a charge when we design a shirt for a customer but when it comes to t-shirt pringing for non-profit organizations we waive those fees with a few exceptions. Those exceptions generally revolve around the complexity of the design and the amount of time it takes to create such a design.

From the beginning Kirkwood Trading Company works with our customers so we are all on the same page quickly. We understand what you need and when you need it. Through the years we have become very good at providing our custom t-shirt screen printing service in a manner that doesn’t take a lot of our customers time. We send digital proofs out to all customers so there is never a mystery and all pricing is set before hand so there are never any surprises.

If you are involved with a foundation organization contact us. We’ll be happy to discuss our t-shirt printing for non-profit organizations and how we serve a national clientele from coast to coast in a timely fashion for a lot less than other screen printing companies.

Kirkwood Trading Company

Best Custom T-shirts For Cheap

The age old question, what are the best custom t-shirts for cheap? It’s actually a question with 2 answers since we are talking about a t-shirt that has a print on it. Before we get started let’s assume we are on the same and using the word cheap to mean inexpensive. Our customers are always looking for budget friendly options and they want to get the most bang for their buck possible. We like to give people options and let them decide what works best because generally people expect us to bring our expertise to the table. This typically comes in the form of helping them choose the right shirt or giving them design ideas or advice on how to best print their image.

The Best Custom T-shirts for Cheap is going to be a 5.3oz preshrunk cotton t-shirt by Gildan, the worlds largest t-shirt manufacturer. The style number is Gildan 5000 or G500 depending on the distributor. They offer over 60 colors to choose and they are the leading source for new and trendy colors. If you are looking for a budget friendly t-shirt, the Gildan 5000 is your shirt.

So now you know the shirt to choose for the best custom t-shirts for cheap, now let’s talk about the other part, the printing.

When it comes to screen printing let your quantity be your guide to how many print colors you want on your design. The less ink colors used in the a custom t-shirt design, the less it costs. So a single color print is going to be more cost effective than a 6 color print. With that being said, if you are ordering custom t-shirts and your quantity is going to be between 12 and 24 shirts, you almost always want to keep that to a single color front and back print or a two color front print. When you get into 3 or more colors on that small of a quantity the shirts can become cost prohibitive. You want cost effective, you are looking for cheap. In addition, white t-shirts are the least expensive and colored shirts are the most expensive with a few shades of grey falling in the middle. You can order a few thousand shirts with a 6 color print and it will be just as economical as a 12 shirt order with a single print. The key is to match the quantity with the print color for the best custom t-shirts for cheap.

One thing Kirkwood Trading Company does is provide their customers with options when they give a price quote to a customer who is uncertain of what they want. Often times a customer is looking for a higher quality t-shirt and screen print but has a lower budget. By giving them options they can pick and choose what is more important to them and choose options to match their budget. Sometimes a customer has to have a higher quality softer shirt and they can sacrifice and eliminate some print colors to meet their shirt budget. Other times customers can’t or won’t sacrifice the number of colors in the design but can live with a t-shirt that isn’t as soft. We’ll be happy to give you options be it for custom t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, polos, etc.

Kirkwood Trading Company offers an online quote form, a design studio where customers can design their shirts online, and we are always a phone call or email away as well to answer any questions. You can reach us here at our contact page. Contact us

Kirkwood Trading Company screen prints on Gildan T-shirts

Custom Printed Gildan T-shirts make up the majority of logo tees you see around town. Gildan is the biggest manufacturer of blank t-shirts and they are on the cutting edge in regards to trendy colors and popular styles and materials.

Gildan t-shirts will be the default t-shirt quoted and supplied by screen printers for several reasons.
1. Gildan has the best stock of any t-shirt manufacturer and every distributor full stocks Gildan at all of the locations.

2. Gildan t-shirts are the most t-shirts on the market

3. Gildan T-shirts offer the most colors of any shirt manufacturer

4. The have the best price point

5. Gildan offers several custom apparel styles from preshrunk cotton, Dryblend, performance, and softstyle tees. Not to mention their full line of hoodies, sweatpants, sweatshirts, and quarter zip pullovers.

If you are in the market for custom printed t-shirts in St. Louis, be sure to check out these styles. We will be happy to give you a free price quote on any style you choose.

* Gildan 5000 and Gildan 2000 – 100% preshrunk cotton unisex tees. Come in over 75 colors and both in youth, adult, and several ladies styles including V-neck

* Gildan Dryblend – a performance blend of cotton and polyester that is lightweight and softer than traditional preshrunk cotton

* Gildan Performance – They offer 2 performance tees and rival the big names. They have their basic poly performance which is a very light weight shirt and they now have a performance tech t-shirt which a personal favorit of mine.

* Gildan Softstyle – A softer ringspun cotton that rivals the softness of the trendy brands at a lower price. Great heathered color options and light weight with tapering for a true modern fit.

With their abundance of different color options and style you will be sure to find the perfect shirt color and ink color compliment to create a truly unique custom t-shirt order.

If you would be interested in a price quote you can contact Kirkwood Trading Company at your convenience and we’ll be happy to speak with you on your next screen printing order.

Kirkwood Trading Company St. Louis custom t-shirt screen printing shop

Creating a successful online spirit store has never been easier. First and foremost now more than ever people are making all kinds of purchases online. Second, Kirkwood Trading Compmany provides it’s clients with a free online store where schools, teams, and organizations can sell their custom spirit wear. So the costs that are associated with selling spirit wear are no longer there because there is no need for costly inventory or space. There is no longer a need to purchase a domain name and hosting plan. Kirkwood Trading Company now provides all of these things completely free to our clients. What’s more, we also completely build the store for you, handle order processing, and if need be, shipping and bagging. All you have to do is sit back and collect the revenue. Yes, it’s that easy.

First Things First
When it comes to a successful online spirit store you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The mmost successful stores contain 80% of the staple apparel and 20% unique apparel that is geared specifically towards your clientele. By staples we are talking about t-shirts, hoodies, shorts, hats, jackets, bags, etc. By unique apparel we are talking specialty apparel where you know they’ll be a hit. This might be a baseball tee, a unique cut women’s cut tee, it could even be a unique one time design, which we’ll get to in just a bit. Staples are important because they are expected, they typically remain the same in both style and print year after year and a perfect case and point would ba high school spirit wear store. If a schools colors are black and gold then more than likely a staple would be a black hoodie with a gold print that says something like Springfield. Something a student might by a couple times throughout his high school career but it’s common enough that town citizens, incoming freshman, and the like all buy this staple year after year. Staple items are the life blood of a successful online spirit store. The unique items are to gain additional revenue from the people who own the staples.

Go unique to get more sales
One thing we find successful is when a school or team offers a new and fresh design that is only offered for a limited time and then never to be seen again. This creates buzz and buzz creates sales. Nobody likes to feel left out and if a particular shirt with a unique design is only for sale for a limited time, then people will jump on it. It’s a way to create buzz, attract new customers, and get additional sales from existing customers.

We do this exact same thing for a local club sport here in St. Louis. They have an online spirit store 3 times a year for a few weeks each time. They offer about 20 different items. Of those 20 different items 15 of them are always the same, there staples. 4 items are completely new and fresh with each time the store is reoponed, and the 20th product, is always a brand new limited edition design that is only for sale during that particular time the store is open. If they have 200 memebers, they’ll see about 160 of this unique limited edition shirt alone. The rest of the sales are from the staples and unique designs. But what is nice is that you’ll find people who ordered apparel from their store in the summer, so they typically won’t order anything in the fall, but the summer people will most certainly buy that one limited edition item in the fall.

Having something limited edition is a great way to gain additional sales.

If you have an interest in learning more about how Kirkwood Trading Company can help you with your custom online spirit store, give us a call or send us an email and we’ll be happy to discuss what we can do for you to help you generate revenue without spending any money. We promise, it really is that simple.

custom t-shirt screen printing in St. Louis

Top 5 T-shirts to Customize

This list of top 5 t-shirts to customize is based on the past 3 years of our personal clients buying habits which is based on quality, color availability, price point, and durability. As a local St. Louis screen printing company we can agree with these choices and give you the reasons and feedback to back that up. So if you are in the market for custom t-shirts you may want to take a look at these top 5 t-shirts and see if their popularity aligns with the goals for your custom t-shirt order.

Performance T-shirts A4 3142 unisex
While performance tees have come a long way over the past few years with several companies now offering a 100% moisture wicking polyester t-shirt, it can be hard to choose the best one for you. I’ll tell you a diry little secret: 100% polyester is 100% polyester and there isn’t going to be a difference between a $50 t-shirt or a $4 t-shirt. The main difference comes in the weight of the shirt and for consumers of custom t-shirts, color availability and price point.

The A4 brand is a great up and coming brand. While they are well established and known for quality shirts at a great price, only in the past few years have all of the major distributors picked them up. They offer several styles including men, women, and youth and they get into the popular trends of sublimated designs where you can buy their shirts with camo patterns or accent piping. They offer socks, shorts, sweatshirts, and more.

Screen Printers Perspective:
They are readily available, come in enough colors to satisfy most of our clients, and the shirts themselves are very durable so we don’t have to handle them with additional care in order to not cause runs in the fabric.

Customers perspective:
A4 boasts the best price point among 100% poly moisture wicking t-shirts and they have a nice color selection as well as nice ladies and youth compliments to their 3142. Customer feedback has been really positive which is great because it’s usually us turning new clients onto this product to save them money.

Fashion T-shirts Next Level 3600 cotton crew
Fashion tees have beceome a big trend in recent years with more and more people wanting a softer tapered cut t-shirt. Next Level would have several t-shirts in the Top 5 T-shirts but only this one because of price point, feel, and availability puts it in the top 5 t-shirts. It’s ringspun cotton so it is softer than your typical shirt.

Screen Printers Perspective:
It’s a great price point and great availibility. Only downside would be limited color options and of those a lot of earth tone colors.

Customer Perspective:
Customers are able to get into a trendy shirt at a lost price point. This is great for branding, especially when selling shirts or promoting something because they have soft feel everyone wants.

Garment Dyed T-shirts Comfort Colors
If you are in high school or college, then you know comfort colors. These are garment dyed shirts that sit in a category of their own and pretty much have complete market saturation. They have TONS of unique colors and a soft feel for a garment dyed shirt. These would be the most popular shirt among the 14-22 year old consumer. In addition they have several styles that include pocket tees, tank tops, and sweatshirts. The only downside which should be ending soon is their availability as their stock has suffered greatly and cost them some major dollars because they have been hard to get. That should change though with Gildan purchasing them at least that is hopefully the plan.

Screen Printers Perspective:
Their price point is a little higher for a solid colored t-shirt but customers who order this expect that. Their limited stock can make fulfilling customers orders difficult, but they are easy to print on, durable, and when they have stock in the colors the customer wants, it makes for a rewarding order.

Customer perspective:
Unique colors and softness stick out the most. Again, they have a higher price point but customers expect that and are willing to pay for it. But the unique colors stand out among all of the others which is great to get a message across. So for some years they have been in the top 5 t-shirts

Most Popular T-shirts: Gildan 2000 and 5000
Gildan is the largest T-shirt manufacturer in the world and more than likely if you see a custom t-shirt, it’s a Gildan brand shirt. They have 2 styles really, the are in the top 5 custom t-shirts to customize. Their 2000 – 6oz 100% preshrunk cotton and their 5000 5oz 100% preshrunk cotton. The 5000 has the best price point and comes in over 50 colors. The 2000 comes in over 70 colors. The price point is great, every single distributor carries them, their availability is second to none. They also come out with new colors each year and curb the poor selling colors so you always get the latest and greatest color trends.

Screen Printers Perspective:
Withhout a doubt their low price point, high quality, and huge color options make them a fit for 90% of the custom t-shirt consumers out there. They are very durable, the cotton is preshrunk, and their fit is the gauge by all shirts. So you get a standard fitting t-shirt that comes in a lot of colors and even sizes for that matter. You can get virtually any Gildan t-shirt on a one day ship which make them great for rush orders.

Customer perspective:
Customers love Gildan because of their color choices and their durability and most colors come in both youth and adult so they are a great fit for virtually anything under the sun be it awareness walks, fundraisers, trips, family reunions, or whatever.

Blend Shirts Gildan 8000 Dryblend
Gildan came out with their 8000 some years back and it’s their 50/50 cotton poly Dryblend. So it has some moisture properties and is a little softer than their preshrunk cotton styles. They have over 30 colors available in this style and it also comes in youth and long sleeve. The price point is the same as the Gildan heavy cotton tee so it’s a great option for a myriad of ocassions.

Screen printers perspective:
Availability is great, durability is great, lots of color options at a great price point. Easy to print on and easy to sway a customer into a more modern blend shirt since the price point is the same as a cotton.

Custom perspective:
Customers are getting a softer more modern trendy shirt at a great price with lots of color options. You can’t go wrong with this blend.

Honorable Mentions:
There is an abundance of honorable mentions that didn’t make the top 5 t-shirts to customize. Some of them could just be the consumers aren’t aware of them and other times price point and avaialability don’t make them a good match.

Any Gildan product is going to be a great buy. Their durability, availability, color options, and price point make even their new tech performance shirt and softstyle shirts something to consider. Everything is moderately priced from Gildan and you simply can’t go wrong no matter your purpose for ordering custom t-shirts.

Fruit of the loom, Jerzees, hanes, are all in the same category as Gildan with practically the same price points and same color options.

Next level has a great lineup and compete directly with Bella but Next Level tends to have a better price point. There are specialty brands such as LAT, Rabbit Skins, Boxercraft that also offer a variety of products and colors as well.

When you are in the market for custom t-shirts contact Kirkwood Trading Company in St. Louis. We serve a clientele across the United States and offer super fast turn around times and ultra competitive pricing.

You can contact us here Free quote

Kirkwood Trading Company

T-shirt Fundraising made Easy

Smart fundraisers know that people like to get something in return for their donation which is why a t-shirt fundraiser makes sense. In fact, studies show that people tend to give more when they get something back for their money. It doesn’t have to be a something of equal value like most people think, because let’s face it, that would defeat the purpose. Although the perceived value is something that really encourages people to donate. Let’s say you want to buy the latest trendy t-shirt at a store, more than likely you will end up paying $25, $45, or much more.

Now imagine selling a custom t-shirt for your cause that has a price tag of $15 or $20. Plenty of people out there will buy a $20 gag t-shirt for a single use ocassion. So to sell a fundraising t-shirt for $15 or $20 where the buyer can wear it all the time is a no brainer.

The most successful fundraising campaigns will have a broad audience with a high number of possible contributors so the t-shirt cost is very minimal. In order to have a successful t-shirt fundraising campaign, ideally you want to buy a high volume of shirts. Of course that all just depends on your goals.

Custom t-shirt fundraising is a great way to have fun by coming up with a unique design catered to promote the cause. They can be serious, funny, abstract, it doesn’t matter. And that’s just it, t-shirt fundraising can be cateret to fit your specific audience and geared toward the outcome you wish to portray.

The best part is there is no cost to you to get started. You can do away with costly inventory and taking the time to sell them to each individual. Kirkwood Trading Company provides you with a free web store where we’ll handle all of the order processing and if need be, shipping as well.

It’s easy to get started with a simple email or phone call. We’ll be happy to talk with you and help you with design, best practices, and whatever we can do to help. A successful t-shirt fundraiser is a goal that serves everyone involved.

You can contact us here. Contact Us